The 3rd International Neonatology Association Conference

Early July 2017 saw the INA Conference come to Europe again – this time it was held in Cite Internationale, Lyon, France in the same location as the previous EMBA Conference (in 2015). It seemed very fitting then that a pre-conference workshop dedicated to human milk banking worldwide kicked off the meeting and that donor milk was also featured several times on the main conference programme.

Professor Jean Charles Picaud (France, President EMBA), Prof Sertac Arslanoglu (Turkey, Vice President, EMBA) and Gillian Weaver (UK, former President EMBA) provided a series of presentations to encourage discussion on a range of milk banking related topics throughout the conferences’s three days. Sertac explored the integration of human milk banks in neonatal units and looked at their impact on practices, infants’ health and socio-cultural issues, whilst Gillian described the key points for the optimal operation of a human milk bank. Jean-Charles covered the effects of pasteurisation on human milk quality as well as introducing the widely international audience to the world of milk banks.